The Lifecycle of a Donation to the Friends

Have you ever wondered what happens to the books our patrons donate to the Friends? Let us take you through the process we follow every day to put quality used books on our shelves.

1. Donate: Every day the library is open, our Donation Area is available for gently used books and materials.

The Donation Area is in the Lobby.

We are happy to accept books and AV materials that meet the following conditions:

mold and bug free, and not previously wet

gently used, good condition

no bite marks!

published within five years on time-sensitive topics like medicine and computer related subjects, and within ten years on business topics

2016 or 2017 for periodicals

all rare/collectible accepted!

2.Sort: Materials are then taken down to our Sorting Room several times a day. We empty each bag/box and determine what we can keep for stock on the shelves, or what must be recycled, trashed, donated, or put out on our Free Books area.

3. Price and Shelve: Materials we keep are sorted into genres and categories, both fiction and non-fiction, music, movies, and audio books, toys/games/puzzles, and assorted miscellaneous material. Our volunteers price everything at very reasonable rates. The majority of our stock is priced at $1.00 or less.

Youth selections ready for sale!

4. Outreach: Once a book has been available on the shelves for several months, it is weeded off to make room for fresh choices. We donate as many of those weeded selections as we can to our outreach partners. Some items are made available for free in the vestibule. We also provide books to the Community Center and the District Court jury waiting room.

5. Repeat: The cycle is ongoing…we work every day the library is open to provide the best possible selection to our patrons!